Tropical Cooling and the Onset of North American Glaciation
| Title: | Tropical Cooling and the Onset of North American Glaciation |
| Author: |
Molnar, Peter; Huybers, Peter
Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors. |
| Citation: | Huybers, Peter and Peter Molnar. 2007. Tropical cooling and the onset of North American glaciation. Climate of the Past 3, no. 3: 549-557. |
| Full Text & Related Files: |
tropics_glacial_onset.pdf (1.607Mb; PDF) 
|
| Abstract: | We offer a test of the idea that gradual cooling in the eastern tropical Pacific led to cooling of North America and the initiation of glaciation ~3 Myr ago. Using modern climate data we estimate how warming of the eastern tropical Pacific affects North American temperature and ice-ablation. Assuming that the modern relationship holds over the past millions of years, a ~4°C warmer eastern tropical Pacific between 3–5 Ma would increase ablation in northern North America by approximately two meters per year. By comparison, a similar estimate of the ablation response to variations in Earth's obliquity gives less than half the magnitude of the tropically-induced change. Considering that variations in Earth's obliquity appear sufficient to initiate glaciations between ~1–3 Ma, we infer that the warmer eastern equatorial Pacific prior to 3 Ma suffices to preclude glaciation. |
| Published Version: | http://www.clim-past.net/3/549/2007/cp-3-549-2007.html |
| Other Sources: | http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~phuybers/Doc/tropics_glacial_onset.pdf |
| Terms of Use: | This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA |
| Citable link to this page: | http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3204914 |
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Peer reviewed scholarly articles from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University
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